Gatekeepers to the "inner circle"

Earlier, Gore had analyzed how his influence among the other senators compared to Kefauver's relationship with them; now he explains the differences between his career and Hubert Humphrey's time in the Senate. Throughout this portion of the interview and the following several minutes, Gore ties the amount of power a senator held to the relationship he or she had to Lyndon Johnson.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Albert Gore, October 24, 1976. Interview A-0321-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

DEWEY W. GRANTHAM:

Your position in this regard, Senator, strikes me as having been very
similar to that of Hubert Humphrey in that period.

ALBERT GORE:

Well, I'm not sure it was similar. He was more loquacious than I
[laughter]
.

DEWEY W. GRANTHAM:

But did he not make his way into the club, perhaps not the inner club,
despite the fact that he had been critical of some administration
positions such as civil rights?

ALBERT GORE:

Well, he was longer in gaining admission to the club, but he finally
became a member of the inner club, which I didn't. He was longer en
route, but he succeeded more than I
[laughter]
.

DEWEY W. GRANTHAM:

He went farther, eh?
[laughter]

ALBERT GORE:

Yes. By then my maverick tendencies had come to assert themselves.

DEWEY W. GRANTHAM:

So to pursue that a bit, you two perhaps reversed roles. He was more a
maverick in the beginning and you more near the end of your career.

ALBERT GORE:

Yes. And he wound up as a strong supporter of Lyndon Johnson, and I wound
up as an opponent of Lyndon Johnson. As of then that affinity or
non-affinity with Lyndon Johnson determined whether you were a member of
the inner circle or whether you were not
[laughter]
.